


hexes & jinxes

by hawksonfire



Series: lumos & nox [1]
Category: Marvel
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Clint Barton Feels, Clint Barton Needs a Hug, Clint is confused by these people who want to be his friends, Crying, Deaf Clint Barton, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gryffindor Steve Rogers, Hardly Any Dialogue, Hufflepuff Clint Barton, Hurt Bucky Barnes, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, POV Clint Barton, Protective Clint Barton, Slytherin Bucky Barnes, poor darling babey, slytherin natasha romanoff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-27 09:53:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20405773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hawksonfire/pseuds/hawksonfire
Summary: In fourth year, Bucky kisses Clint. This is what happens leading up to that.





	hexes & jinxes

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Clint Barton Bingo Square - I1 - Flirting.  
** BINGO Y'ALL **  
Also written for Star Spangled Bingo Square I2 - Falling in Love.
> 
> a prequel to my fic _ Hippogriffs _, which you don't have to read to understand this, but should read anyway.

**Clint**

_ ~~First Year~~ _

He was terrified. There was so much to see, and so many new things - Clint didn’t know how to deal with it all. The magic was nothing new, sure - but the amount of magic was insane. Clint knows that if he speaks, he’ll stammer and stutter and just generally make a fool of himself, so he keeps his mouth shut and prays that he actually gets Sorted and that there wasn’t a mistake made and that he _ belongs _ here.

He’s no stranger to magic - his father is a wizard, not that he should be used as an example for anything. As excited as Clint is to be at Hogwarts (finally!), he is _ not _ looking forward to going back home again. Barney didn’t get a letter at all, and that was bad enough - Clint still bears the scars from that beating.

Clint had managed to hide his letter from his dad and Barney for two days before they found it. Coming home to find them sitting at the kitchen table with his letter in front of them had been terrifying. Clint didn’t run, though. He never ran. It was worse when he ran. 

When Clint had healed (mostly), they took him to Diagon Alley and got him the bare minimum of supplies. He would have to make do with what he had - hopefully the professors wouldn't be too harsh on him. He got his wand (twelve and three-quarters of an inch, willow with dragon heartstring) and was only mildly creeped out by Ollivander - the bloke’s creepy, yes, but Clint sees far worse than him every day.

A voice snaps him out of his memories. “When I call your name, come up to the front and sit on this stool,” Professor Hill says. She seems nice enough, although Clint has learned that just because an adult looks nice, doesn't mean they are nice. “Once you’ve been sorted, you will go and sit at your house table.” She unrolls a scroll and Clint steels himself, getting ready for his name to be called. “Abernathy, Jordan!” 

A short boy slouches up to the stool and puts on the Hat, barely sitting there for ten seconds when the Hat yells out, “Ravenclaw!” Ravenclaw wouldn’t be so bad to be Sorted into, Clint thinks. It’s not going to happen because he’s not smart enough, but it wouldn’t be so bad.

Clint’s name is the fourth one called, right after, “Banner, Robert!” gets sorted into Ravenclaw. “Barton, Clint!” Clint’s palms immediately go sweaty and his heart starts racing and he feels like everyone is staring at him, but he forces himself to take one step forward, then another - and before he knows it, he’s sitting on the stool with the Sorting Hat being lowered over his head. 

_ Well well, what do we have here? _ Clint almost jumps as the sly voice murmurs in his ear, but he manages to hold still. _ Hmmm, I see. Very loyal, even if it is perhaps to the wrong people. _

**You don’t get to tell me who to be loyal to,** Clint thinks viciously, and he gets the faintest sense of amused shock that floats through his mind before the Hat hums.

_ Hm, loyal to a fault then. Better be... _ “Hufflepuff!” The Hat shouts out, and Clint slides off the stool, walking over to the table adorned in yellow and black. He’s the first new Hufflepuff of the year, and it takes everything he has not to just get up and run away from all the people _ touching _ him and slapping his back and talking too fast.

He just barely catches “Brock, Edward!” being sorted into Ravenclaw through the buzzing in his ears, and the next few names pass by without being taken in. He tunes back in as a Wanda and Pietro Maximoff are both sorted into Gryffindor, and watches as another set of siblings, Thor and Loki Odinson, are sorted into Hufflepuff and Slytherin respectively. He’s hung out with Thor a few times, but Loki’s always given him the creeps. At least he’ll have one familiar face in his dorm this year.

Potts, Virginia is placed in Slytherin, Rhodes, James is placed in Gryffindor, followed by Rogers, Steven (also in Gryffindor). Romanoff, Natasha goes to Slytherin, sliding in beside a boy with longish brown hair and shooting a sly grin in his direction. Stark, Anthony goes to Ravenclaw, and the final Sort of the night, a Wilson, Samuel, goes to Gryffindor as well, sitting down next to Steven Rogers with a grin and a friendly shoulder punch.

His year mates look friendly enough, even if Thor’s a bit too loud and boisterous for Clint’s taste, and Gryffindors, in general, are a rowdy bunch - all friendly roughhousing and joking teases. Clint’s not sure how he feels about Slytherin - it was his dad’s house, but he’s not exactly comfortable judging an entire group of people just based on one bad person.

Clint thinks his ma would have been Ravenclaw, if she’d been born with magic. She’s always had a sly little glint in her eye - or at least, she used to have it, when Clint was younger. 

The welcome feast passes by quickly enough, and by the time the prefects bring the first-years down to the dormitories, Clint is exhausted. He barely manages to put on his sleeping clothes before passing out face-down on his bed.

~~

Clint very much does not want to go home for Christmas. He wants to stay at Hogwarts, and he wants to eat enough food to fill his stomach on Christmas morning, and he wants to have one Christmas where he’s not scared all day, where he can actually open presents - one Christmas where he maybe, _ maybe, _has people he can consider family surrounding him. 

He’s nearly freaking out at the Hufflepuff table about whether or not he should go home when Thor Odinson comes up to him. “My brother is returning home for the holidays,” he says, watching Clint carefully. “I would be very appreciative if you would keep me company while he is away from school.”

“I can do that,” Clint says weakly, not so intimidated by Thor’s already impressive bulk that he’ll turn down what is clearly an attempt at friendship - even at eleven, he’s the biggest in their year _ and _ the two above them. “We can play wizard’s chess,” he offers.

Thor nods, beaming at him. “That would be most pleasant!” Clint only just barely manages to hold back a flinch at Thor’s booming voice, and he _ definitely _ doesn’t manage to hold one back at the subsequent slap on the back. He doesn’t think Thor notices, though, so at least there’s that. Thor leaves, and Clint slumps in his chair, content in the knowledge that he can tell his father that Thor Odinson asked him to stay behind on Christmas.

His father will approve of Clint’s ‘networking’, as he calls it. He would say it’s very Slytherin of Clint to attach himself to the son of the wizarding world’s most affluent families - Clint doesn’t really want to do anything his father would approve of, but he already said yes and can’t back out now. 

So he spends Christmas holidays with Thor, mostly, but he notices that they aren’t the only ones staying back for the break. Steve Rogers and the boy from Slytherin Clint noticed at the beginning of the year (he learns that the boy’s name is Bucky Barnes) stay as well, and when Tony Stark (Clint overheard him threatening an older Ravenclaw if he was ever called Anthony, and adjusted his perception accordingly) flounces into the Great Hall two days into the break, the five of them decide that they may as well sit together over break so they aren’t too lonely.

Steve and Tony bicker constantly. During one of their more _ lively _ arguments, which involves a lot of gesturing and raised voices, Clint slips away for the third time when Tony’s voice gets too loud and he starts to get anxious so he leaves to try and find a quiet spot to calm himself down. 

He doesn’t notice that someone’s following him until he reaches the Courtyard, snags a broom from the small stone building where they’re kept, and soars into the air. When he looks down at the ground, he sees a small figure staring up at him. He’s too high to make out who it is, and honestly, he doesn’t really want to talk to anyone right now, so he keeps flying until his hands are numb and the figure is gone.

No one says anything to him the next day when he rejoins their little group, so he figures it must have been one of the teachers coming to make sure he wasn’t going to die. 

When holidays are over and students start trickling back into Hogwarts, filling the hallways with shouts of laughter and muttered jinxes and spells once again, their little group of mismatched wizards breaks apart without a word, heading back to their House tables. 

Clint’s chest is oddly tight at this, and he thinks maybe he might have bruised a rib when he came tumbling off his broom when he was racing Thor around earlier, so he goes to the Medical ward and asks Madam Cho to take a look at it. She waves her wand over him and says an incantation he doesn’t quite catch, and then clucks her tongue at him and pushes some chocolate into his hands, muttering about how he clearly doesn’t eat enough and she’s prescribing him some good, large meals and _ so help her _ if she finds out he’s not been eating them.

Clint takes the chocolate meekly, slightly terrified of the Mediwitch, and says “Yes, Madam Cho,” and “No, Madam Cho,” when she asks if he understands and then if he needs anything else. 

Surprisingly, Steve is waiting for him outside the Medical ward. He pushes off the wall when Clint stumbles out, still wide-eyed and clutching the chocolate in his hands. “You’re alright, then?” He asks, nodding once when Clint answers in the affirmative. “Enjoy your chocolate,” he says when Clint doesn’t say anything else and he peels off into a side corridor, leaving Clint alone and _ very _ confused by the entire encounter.

(He manages to make the chocolate last a week, and by then he’s already bruised his eye trying to catch Hagrid’s puppy in his arms - that thing has a hard tail, but he’s still a good boy - so he has to go back to the Medical ward anyway.)

~~

First year is about as uneventful as a year at a magic school can be - Clint passes all his end-of-year exams (nothing below an A, thank Merlin, and that was in Transfiguration which his father doesn’t really care about anyway), and comes top of his class in Charms, to his surprise. Saying goodbye to Thor is surprisingly difficult, considering they weren’t all that close during the year, but Clint’s chest gets weirdly tight again and now he’s thinking that maybe it has something to do with feelings, and not a bruised or broken rib.

Aw, feelings, no. Clint spends the train ride back to the station carefully reeling in the bits of himself that he’s given to Hogwarts and the people there, and by the time they arrive and he sees his brother waiting for him, Clint has collected all his bits and pieces and tucked them away, hidden from the people he doesn’t want them to be seen by.

It’s summertime - there’s no school for a whole three months, the weather is gorgeous, and all Clint wants is to be back at Hogwarts.

~~_ Second Year _~~

Thor manages to find him almost immediately, and when he falls into the seat across from Clint, it’s just the two of them in the little compartment and Clint can already feel himself tensing. Thor looks at him carefully, says nothing about the way Clint is holding his left arm gingerly at his side, and hands over a sandwich. “My mother made far too many and told me to give some away. You’re not allergic to peanuts, are you?”

Clint’s not sure, but he shakes his head anyway. The sandwich sticks his tongue to the roof of his mouth and it takes him a minute to unstick it, but he’s smiling as he does so it’s not all bad. The door to their compartment slides open and a girl with bright red hair appears. She cocks her head and looks at them blankly - Clint manages to wipe the crumbs off of his shirt before she says anything. “I’m Natasha,” she says, and she comes into the compartment and sits down next to Thor.

“You’re in Slytherin, aren’t you?” Clint asks, surprising himself when he speaks. Natasha nods. “Is it true that your dorms look out under the Lake? Can you see the Giant Squid sometimes?” Clint loves the water - it’s always much more peaceful underwater than it is above. 

She tilts her head again, like she’s a little surprised he didn’t start hissing at her to get the hell out and stop tainting them with her snake-ness, and nods. “Sometimes the Squid comes by and watches us do homework,” she says. 

“Awesome,” Clint breathes, and by the time they arrive at Hogwarts, Natasha is one of his friends. They get off the train and Thor leaves to find his brother, leaving Clint and Natasha waiting by the carriages together.  
  
“Do you mind if a couple of my friends join us?” Natasha asks, and Clint’s so shocked that she’s _ asking _ him and not just _ telling _ that he sort of just stares at her. He shakes his head mutely when she raises an eyebrow, and like they were waiting for it, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes appear on either side of her, looking Clint up and down. 

“Clint, right?” Steve asks. Clint nods mutely, withdrawing into himself at the appearance of new people. He’s still confused as to what Steve had wanted when he accosted Clint outside the Medical ward last year, and he spends the ride up to the castle thinking about that, turning it over in his mind. He doesn’t realize that he must have left them behind until he’s sitting down at the Hufflepuff table by himself. 

He blinks and looks over to the Slytherin table where Natasha smirks at him and waves. He waves back, hoping desperately that she isn’t mad. She smiles at him and he takes that to mean that she isn’t mad (thank Merlin) but before he can respond, Headmaster Fury stands up. His speech, although brusque and not meant to be calming at all, soothes Clint’s mind and tension drains from his body as he realizes that he’s back. 

For the first time since he left Hogwarts back in June, a small smile graces his face. He’s back.

~~

It takes Clint a week or so to get back into the swing of things, but soon enough he’s casting charms and brewing potions along with the rest of his year. He tries out for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team and they make him a Seeker. He’s still in shock as he walks away from the pitch clutching his broom, and it’s for that reason that he doesn’t notice when Natasha and Steve fall into step beside him.

“You’re pretty good on a broom, Clint,” Steve says. 

“I’ve been flying since I was a kid,” Clint says quietly. “I like being high up.”

“Our house might actually have some competition this year,” Natasha says, bumping his shoulder. 

“You might even lose for the first time in a decade,” Steve says, grinning. Natasha snorts. They stick by his side for the rest of the day, and it’s so odd having people beside him that Clint doesn’t realize he’s laughed more times today, with Steve and Natasha, than he did all summer.

Something changes after that, and Clint finds himself almost always with at least one other person with him. Thor introduces him to Robert “call me Bruce” Banner - Clint likes the way he doesn’t need to talk around Bruce. He can be silent and Bruce won’t try to make him talk.

(Clint’s known Bruce for three months when he sees him lose his temper at a sixth year Slytherin making fun of a first-year Ravenclaw. It’s like Bruce is a completely different person when he’s yelling at the Slytherin, but he looks so tired once he’s done that Clint has to offer to show him where the kitchens are twice before he accepts, and even then he keeps looking at Clint out of the corner of his eye like he’s going to change his mind. Clint knows exactly how he feels, so he just hands Bruce a mug of hot chocolate once they’re in the kitchens. They sit in silence while they drink it, and Clint walks Bruce back to the Ravenclaw dormitory once they’re done even though it’s on the opposite side of the castle from the Hufflepuff dorms. “Thank you,” Bruce says quietly, before he darts into the Ravenclaw dorms and disappears from sight. Clint just nods and turns around to start walking back to his dorms.)

By the time Christmas arrives again, Clint has gained a rather substantial group of friends. Thor and Bruce are practically attached at the hip, Steve and Natasha always have a funny story to tell, and Tony dragged Jim Rhodes and Pepper Potts along with him to a study group once and then they sort of just... stuck around. It’s not so bad, having people around him all the time, Clint thinks. 

The only person that doesn’t really come around much is Bucky. Clint’s seen him hanging around Steve and Natasha sometimes, but he’s never with them when they come over so Clint figures he maybe just doesn’t like people. They all stay at Hogwarts for Christmas holidays, and Clint wakes up to find a lot of presents he wasn’t expecting and all his friends in the Hufflepuff common room when he stumbles into it after waking up. 

“Merry Christmas, Clint,” Steve says happily, handing him some chocolate. Clint blinks and takes a piece, stuffing it in his mouth to hopefully hide his shock. He gets presents from all of them, and is now even more grateful that he got something to give them all, and then he gets one present that doesn’t have a name tag saying who it’s from on it. 

He doesn’t see Natasha and Steve exchange a look, but when he opens it and a new pair of Hufflepuff Seeking gloves falls into his lap, he grins and raises his head just in time to see Steve slip out of the room. He races back to his trunk and scrambles out of the common room, catching up with Steve just a few turns away. “Steve!” Steve turns to face him, brightening when he sees who it is. “Can you give this to Bucky?” Clint asks, holding out the shoddily wrapped gift. “I saw he wasn’t here but I want him to have this.”

“Sure,” Steve says happily, and he takes the package with a nearly smug look on his face. He waves and walks away, and Clint heads back to the Hufflepuff common room, confused at his reaction. He puts it out of his mind upon reaching the group of his friends around the fire and grins - he’s so glad he stayed for Christmas this year.

~~

Clint hides in his room for all of Valentine’s Day - luckily it fell on a Saturday this year, so he doesn’t have to worry about missing any classes. It’s not that Clint thinks he’ll get any of the gnome-entines (creepy little gnomes in a diaper who sit on you and then sing to you) because, really - who would have a crush on him? 

Valentine’s Day passes quickly enough, and so does the rest of February. It would be funny how fast time passes for Clint while he’s at Hogwarts - if he didn’t dread leaving so much. Bucky starts sitting with their little study group more and more, citing upcoming O.W.Ls as his reason when Steve pokes fun at him. He doesn’t speak to Clint much, beyond the occasional request for Clint to pass a textbook. 

_ He’s got really nice hair_, Clint finds himself thinking one day as Bucky brushes a piece of hair out of his face. The tips of his ears go bright red as soon as he realizes what he’s thought, and he packs up his book and races out of the library, stammering excuses. He makes it back to his dorm and flops onto his bed, staring at the ceiling unseeing. 

It’s not like Clint’s an idiot, okay. He understands his own feelings. He just hates talking about them or thinking about them or acknowledging that they exist to anyone other than himself. So he can admit that he probably has a teensy-weensy-itty-bitty little baby crush on Bucky Barnes - but nothing will ever come of it. 

Firstly, because Bucky is a year above Clint and probably has all the people in his year fawning over him. Secondly, there’s no way Bucky would ever have a crush on Clint. He just wouldn’t. 

There’s probably no harm in becoming friends with Bucky, right? Just so Clint can get closer to him and prove that Bucky is too good for him, once and for all? That’s probably okay, right? (Even if it’s not, Clint’s not exactly known for his good decision making skills.)

An image of Bucky laughing at something Steve said, eyes and nose crinkled with the force of his laughter pops into Clint’s head, and his cheeks immediately go bright red again and he buries his face into his pillow. 

Maybe next year.

~~

Despite Clint’s realization, the school year carries on and before he knows it, end of term exams have arrived. Once again, he comes first in his class in Charms (he narrowly misses out on coming top of the class in Herbology, but Bruce is surprisingly good at it) with an ‘O’ in Transfiguration, Defence, Potions and History of Magic and an ‘A’ in everything else. 

He spends the end-of-year feast exchanging promises to owl over the summer (when he can) and Natasha, oddly enough, extends an offer for him to stay at her house for a few weeks - “Possibly even the whole summer, if you can stand me for that long,” she says, eyeing him in a way that makes him feel _ seen _ \- and Clint finds himself seriously considering it.

He doesn’t give an answer, and once again spends the train to the station pulling back and stashing away the bits of himself he knows his father and brother would take pleasure in destroying. He arrives at the station and lugs his trunk over to where his brother is waiting and resigns himself to another summer of desperately wishing he was back at Hogwarts. 

~~

One month into the summer, Clint finds himself an orphan. It takes him approximately three seconds to convince Barney to let him stay with Natasha for the rest of the summer while he figures things out, and it takes even less time than that for Barney to agree, sign the papers and vanish.

When Clint stumbles out of Natasha’s fireplace, followed closely by the person from the Ministry, he is immediately rushed away from the main room and brought to Natasha’s bedroom. He can’t even bring himself to be excited - he’s never been in a girl’s bedroom before. Natasha puts him on the bed and then disappears for a bit, but he’s exactly where she left him when she returns. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” She asks. Clint shakes his head silently and she nods, sitting down beside him on the floor. They’re sitting for maybe half an hour when Clint hears the distinctive sound of the Floo depositing someone - multiple someones - in the room where he came through earlier. Footsteps pound up the stairs and - 

Clint blinks as Steve, Bucky, and Thor come skidding into the room. “I owled them to come over,” Natasha says into his ear quietly, “But they’ll leave if you don’t want them here.” Clint shrugs, still mostly numb and not really understanding why they showed up in the first place. The three boys sit down in a circle around him and Natasha. They sit in silence for nearly an hour before Clint speaks.

“Am I a terrible person if I don’t miss them?” 

No one answers him, and then, “No.” It’s Bucky, surprisingly. “However you feel is valid.” Clint would argue, but honestly? He can’t bring himself to disagree. He might miss his mom eventually, but that’s about all he can drudge up to feel at the moment. 

The boys don’t stay very long. Clint doesn’t mind when they leave, he’s just grateful they came at all. Natasha disappears for a bit too, but when she comes back it’s with an offer Clint can’t really - and doesn’t want to - refuse. “You can stay with us,” she says, pretending to be uninterested in his answer, “We have the room and it would be nice to have another kid around.”

“Please,” Clint chokes out, and something about that word shakes him so badly that he starts to cry. He’s scared and embarrassed, but Natasha takes it all in stride and wraps him up in a hug, ignoring his initial tensing.

“It’s okay,” she murmurs as he sobs in her arms, “You’re safe now.” And he is, Clint realizes. For the first time in maybe ever, and certainly since he started at Hogwarts, he’s safe. The realization sets off a whole new wave of tears, and once he’s done, Natasha hands him a face towel and says offhand, “You can call me Tasha, if you like.”

Clint nods. “You can call me whatever you want,” he offers, because she already knows his name is Clint, and you can’t really shorten that further. 

Tasha’s silent for a moment, and then “Ястребка,” she says, smirking at him. “Little hawk.” She doesn’t explain, and Clint doesn’t ask, but his heart feels fuzzy when he thinks about having a nickname from someone he cares about. She rubs a thumb over his cheekbone and smiles down at him, and Clint feels a little bit of the heaviness on his heart lift. 

Might be nice, he thinks, having a sister. 

~~

It might’ve been the best summer Clint can remember. Steve and Bucky are over more days than not, and Clint soon learns that Bucky and Tasha’s families are close - like, “our children will get married” type of close. His heart flips when he learns that, but Tasha tells him that neither her nor Bucky are interested and neither of their parents would force them into anything. 

He also learns that Steve, surprisingly, is a Muggleborn. “Really? But you’re top of our year in Defence!” He says incredulously, and then blushes when he realizes how rude that was.

“Bucky and I have been best friends since childhood,” he says, bumping Bucky’s shoulder. “His parents took me in after my mom died near the end of first year - wouldn’t let me go anywhere else.”

“Sometimes I think they love you more than they do me,” Bucky sighs, winking at Clint when Steve’s not looking. Clint squeaks and goes pink, and Tasha laughs at him silently, making kissy faces at Bucky when his back is turned. He shoves her and she shoots the Tickling Jinx at him. He retaliates with the Jelly-Legs Jinx and it quickly devolves into an all-out duel from there, all four of them shooting harmless hexes and jinxes at each other.

It’s the most fun Clint’s had in ages.

_ ~~Third Year~~ _

A month into third year, Bucky goes missing. Clint doesn’t think much of not seeing him for a couple days, but when Tasha and Steve come up to him with worried looks on their faces, Clint is immediately on guard. 

“What do you mean, you can’t find him?” Clint asks, worry colouring his tone.

“We’ve looked everywhere,” Tasha says - and this really must be bad because Clint can actually _ see _ what she’s feeling.

“Well, everywhere except the Puff dorms,” Steve says, and Clint’s already packing up his shit. 

“I don’t think he’ll be there,” he says as they’re walking, “But we can check anyway.”

Silence, and then, “What if we can’t find him?” Steve’s voice is small. Seeing the look on Clint’s face, Tasha takes over, wrapping an arm around Steve’s shoulders.

“We will,” she says, and now Clint knows they’re going to find Bucky - because not even the universe wants to mess with Tasha when she gets that look on her face.

~~

Bucky’s not in the Hufflepuff dormitories.

~~

They haven’t found him by Christmas. Clint still gets him a present.

~~

Or by Easter. Bucky’s pile of presents, both from Christmas and his birthday, sit on his bed, gathering dust.

~~

It’s April, and Clint should be studying for end-of-term exams, but instead he’s just sitting in the library, staring sightlessly at the Charms textbook and ignoring the whispers he can hear around him. What if they don’t find Bucky? What if he just disappeared and they never see him again? What if -

“Clint!” Clint’s head shoots up at Tasha’s voice. She races up to him, panting and flushed. 

“Shhh!” Mister Hogan hisses, glaring at them. 

“We found him,” Tasha says, not bothering to lower her voice. Clint blinks at her, and then jumps up, shoves his things into his bag and follows her out of the library at a run. 

They skid around a corner and nearly slam right into Professor Coulson, who looks them up and down calmly, then says, “And where do you think you two are going?” 

“Dad, please,” Tasha pleads, and Coulson actually blinks and takes a step back. That’s the first time Clint’s ever heard Tasha call him ‘dad’, and he sucks in a breath. 

“They found Bucky,” Clint says, interjecting before Coulson can say anything. 

Coulson’s eyes widen. “Has anyone told Mr. Rogers?” 

“He’s already at St. Mungo’s,” Tasha says, hurrying along. “Can we -”

“Once we’re off school grounds, I’ll apparate us there,” Coulson says, and they’re all practically running now, pushing through crowds of students and teachers. He pulls out his wand and says something that Clint doesn’t quite catch over the roar of wind in his ears, and something silvery shoots out of the end of his wand and disappears towards the school.

And then they’re crossing the school wards and Coulson’s grabbing him and Tasha by the arm and there’s a pulling feeling in Clint’s stomach and then they’re at St. Mungo’s. 

He manages to stop himself from puking and follows Tasha inside, hovering over her shoulder as she finds out where they’re keeping Bucky. The two of them burst out of the stairwell in a tangle of limbs and see Steve sitting against a wall, tear tracks drying on his face. “Steve!” Tasha yells out and Steve’s head jerks up and he lets out a sob when he sees them, jerking onto his feet.

“He’s - They - I don’t -” Steve stammers, and Tasha shushes him, tucking his head into her shoulder. She motions for Clint to go check on Bucky with a jerk of her head so he does. 

Steeling himself before he goes into the room, Clint takes a deep breath and opens the door. The first thing he notices is that it’s dark. The room is nearly pitch-black - all the curtains are shut and the lights are off. The second thing is that there’s no one in the bed - he nearly panics, but then he remembers where he used to hide when he was younger. 

Clint gets down on his knees and looks under the bed, and once his eyes adjust to the darkness he sees Bucky, curled up in a corner and glaring at him. “Hi, Bucky,” Clint breathes. Bucky’s eyes widen and he inches forward, eyes locked with Clint’s.

“Clint?” He rasps, and his voice is so hoarse and raw, Clint has to hold in a sob when he thinks about how it got that way. 

“Yeah,” Clint says weakly, “It’s me.” Bucky lets out a sob and rushes forwards, clawing his way out from under the bed and barrelling into Clint, knocking them both back a few feet. Clint wraps his arms around Bucky and holds on tight, murmuring nonsense into Bucky’s hair. 

He lets Bucky cry into his shoulder for as long as he needs, and doesn’t let go even once he’s done. “Please don’t go,” Bucky says quietly, hand tightening on Clint’s shirt. 

“I’m not going anywhere,” Clint says firmly, tightening his grip around Bucky’s torso, “You’re stuck with me.” Bucky starts to cry again, but when the door creaks open and lets in a little sliver of light, he flinches and pushes himself closer to Clint. Tasha and Steve come in, both their faces wet with tears, and the four of them sit together for what feels like hours, all of them crying. 

Bucky falls asleep after a while, curled around his remaining arm in Clint’s lap, and Tasha looks at him softly. “We’re going to take care of him,” she says.

“Always,” Steve says fiercely. 

“Always,” Clint echoes, softer but no less fierce.

_ ~~Fourth Year~~ _

Bucky got held back a year, so he’s in a lot more of Clint’s classes now. He lost his wand hand when he lost his arm, and relearning how to do magic with his other hand and a new wand takes most of the summer. When he manages his first spell with the new wand, he nearly drops it in shock before whooping in excitement and pulling Clint into a hug. They both pull away blushing, neither of them seeing the sly glance that Steve and Natasha exchange behind them.

Bucky’s incredibly smart, even with everything that happened last year weighing on him. He and Clint have sort of a friendly rivalry going in Charms, as both of them were at the top of their years before - well, Before.

Bucky’s got him beat in Transfiguration and Potions, but Clint’s better than him at Defence (although Steve has them both beat there) and History of Magic. They’re tied in Charms, and their constant snarking back and forth has gotten them banned from the weekly study group sessions. 

They start their own, but somehow they never end up doing much studying - it’s mostly a quiet place for Bucky to gather his thoughts in peace, and on more than one occasion, one or both of them end up crying. By the time Christmas rolls around, Clint’s forgotten crush on Bucky has blossomed into full-out Feelings, and Clint is constantly struggling not to blush or stutter around the object of his affections. 

Presents are exchanged, opened, and fawned over on Christmas morning, and Clint slips out of the Great Hall afterward, heading outside to fly. He takes off and flies around for a bit - nothing fancy, just doing laps around the Quidditch pitch to clear his mind. He notices a small figure leaning against the wall as he’s heading back inside the castle, and as he gets closer it turns into Bucky. 

“Have fun?” Bucky asks softly, pushing off the wall to meet him. 

“Flying calms me,” Clint answers.

Bucky’s eyes flash as they pass underneath a doorway, and as he backs Clint into the wall he says, “Please don’t hate me.”

“Why would I -” Bucky cuts him off by kissing him, square on the mouth. It takes Clint a second or two to respond, and when Bucky starts pulling away, an apology already forming on his lips, Clint fists his hands into Bucky’s collar and pulls him back in, kissing him gently. 

“You - I - what?” Bucky says eloquently when they pull away, breathing hard. 

“I’ve been wanting to do that since the end of second year,” Clint says, keeping his hands wrapped in Bucky’s robes.

“Me too!” Bucky splutters, and they start laughing at their idiocy. 

“What made you finally decide to go for it?” Clint asks.

Bucky snorts, shaking his head. “Natasha,” he says, “She told me to go for it or she would hex my hair red.” Clint laughs.

“I’m glad,” he says softly, and he means it. Bucky kisses him again, softer this time and Clint leans into it, letting go of Bucky’s robes with one hand to run those fingers through his hair. 

“We should be getting back,” Bucky says. Clint nods. Bucky pulls away but Clint grabs his hand before he can get too far and Bucky grins at him. 

“Sap,” he teases. 

“Only for you,” Clint replies, and Bucky blushes. He squeezes Clint’s hand gently and they walk back to the Great Hall together. 

“About damn time,” Tasha says, rolling her eyes when they sit down. 

“Steve won the bet,” Thor informs them. “Natasha started a new one that says you’ll be married a year past graduation.”

Bucky leans over and whispers, “I wouldn’t bet on it being that far.” He squeezes Clint’s hand as Clint sits there in shock - not because of what Bucky said, but because of how okay he finds himself with it. 

Spending the rest of his life with Bucky wouldn’t be so bad, Clint thinks. Watching Bucky interact with their friends, laughing and making jokes, Clint smiles. Yeah. Not so bad at all.

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on the [ tumbles](https://candycanedarcy.tumblr.com/)
> 
> follow me on the [ tweets](https://twitter.com/candycanedarcy)


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